Delia Salomon, 15, fits a swim cap on before swimming at Aquatic Park on Wednesday April 30, 2008. Salomon who dreams of swimming the English Channel will make the attempt in August after she turns 16.Photo By Lea Suzuki/ San Francisco Chronicle

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

Delia Salomon, 15, fits a swim cap on before swimming at Aquatic...

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Martha Salomon (right) hands her daughter, Delia Salomon (left),15,and her pacer, Leore Geller (center behind towel), 18, towels as they exit the water after swimming for 47 minutes at Aquatic Park on Wednesday April 30, 2008. Salomon who dreams of swimming the English Channel will make the attempt in August after she turns 16.Photo By Lea Suzuki/ San Francisco Chronicle

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

Martha Salomon (right) hands her daughter, Delia Salomon...

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Delia Salomon swims with her cast at Aquatic Park along with her pacer, Leore Geller on Wednesday April 30, 2008. Salomon who dreams of swimming the English Channel will make the attempt in August after she turns 16.

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

Delia Salomon swims with her cast at Aquatic Park along with her...

Image 4 of 4

Delia Salomon, 15, fits a swim cap on before swimming at Aquatic Park on Wednesday April 30, 2008. Salomon who dreams of swimming the English Channel will make the attempt in August after she turns 16.Photo By Lea Suzuki/ San Francisco Chronicle

Delia Salomon, a Berkeley 16-year-old, hopes to become one of the elite few.

The high school sophomore intends to swim across the English Channel, among the most daunting of all athletic endeavors. It's a feat so rigorous that more people have reached the summit of Mount Everest than have swum to the shores of France.

There's the current - if it's rough, which it usually is, you can wind up drifting toward Belgium.

There's the choppy water - for every forward stroke, you can lose two.

16-year-old Delia Salomon has a dream to swim the English Channel and in August she will attempt the swim. Duration: 1:47. Camera and editing: Lea Suzuki, Chronicle Staff

Media: San Francisco Chronicle

And there's the cold - at 55 or so degrees, the water is so frigid it takes the air out of your lungs.

"I think I can do it," says Delia, an A student at Berkeley High who's completing her sophomore year. "It's a goal I set for myself. It's good to push ourselves, to try to do things that you don't think you can do."

She plans to attempt the Channel crossing in August and said she's excited and a little nervous. But she has been in intense training for more than a year, swimming almost daily either in a pool or in the bay, acclimating herself to cold water.

In March, her preparation hit a bump: She broke her wrist snowboarding.

Her first cast covered much of her right arm and prevented her from training as hard as she wanted. But she regularly sat in ice water to keep acclimated, and she swam with a kickboard and fins. Last month, when she got a second, shorter cast, a liberated Delia was back in the bay.

"Delia is a very strong swimmer," says Rick Arnason, an assistant coach at Golden Bear Swimming, a year-round competitive swim team that's affiliated with USA Swimming. He introduced her to open water swimming a few years ago. "She doesn't have blazing speed, but she excels at endurance and strength."

The Channel is approximately 21 miles across, but because swimmers are pushed around by the tide, they usually wind up swimming many more miles.

The fastest time was just over 7 hours, the slowest almost 27. Delia is planning on 9 hours - Arnason thinks it could take as long as 12 hours, "the equivalent of 36 hours running uphill," he says. The record for youngest swimmer was set in 1983 by a 12-year-old, but the rules of the Channel Swimming Association now require solo swimmers to be at least 16 years old.

The rules also require a land finish, so exhausted swimmers sometimes end up having to climb rocks or cliffs in France to complete the feat. "I'm hoping for sunny weather and a flat tide," says Delia.

Working to gain weight

At a particularly self-conscious time in a teen's life, Delia deliberately put 15 pounds on her 5-foot-6-inch frame to build endurance and help protect her from the cold. A vegetarian, she force-fed herself cheese, butter, pasta and bread. She now weighs 145 pounds.

"I had to really work at it," she says. "I was constantly eating."

Working out with Delia on a recent day was her chum and official pacer, Leore Geller, 18, a graduating senior at Berkeley High who will travel to England with her. They limbered up by stretching and jogging the length of the beach. Then into the water they went.

"The goal is to get their endurance up," says Arnason, as he watched the swimmers along with Delia's other coach, Pedro Ordenes of Water World Swim.

Accompanying the teens in a kayak was Delia's father, Noah.

Delia's mother, Martha, kept track from shore.

To her, it seemed practically destined that Delia would become an ardent swimmer.

"I was miserable when I was pregnant with her - the only time I was comfortable was when I was in a pool," says Martha Salomon, who also has two sons. "She has been my water baby from the get-go."

For a swim across the English Channel, the costs are considerable. Martha Salomon estimates the tab will run at least $20,000. To help raise funds, Delia is selling homemade T-shirts with fish paintings on the front (her mother is reachable by e-mail, martha.salomon@gmail.com).

They've commissioned a boat pilot who will determine the best time to commence the swim - many Channel swims begin in the middle of the night. Delia's slot is Aug. 6-13.

According to the rules, no wetsuit, no fins, no neoprene caps - Delia will wear only a swimsuit and a thin latex cap.

During the swim, her support boat will be close by. Her team will give her liquids and food, but no one can touch her - provisions will be passed to her on a long stick. Rest stops are permitted, but the swimmer has to tread water.

Since 1875, only 772 swimmers have succeeded in swimming from England to France and only 195 have made the reverse route, according to the Channel Swimming Association.

Four tries and 19 years

It took four tries and 19 years before renowned long-distance swimmer David Yudovin of Cambria, near San Luis Obispo, made it across. That was in 1996 when he was 45.

"A lot of people can't even get in the water; the weather is so bad they have to go home," he says.

His fourth attempt took him 13 1/2 hours. "I was elated beyond belief to walk up on the beach," he says.

Delia says she was inspired to attempt the Channel two years ago after reading a book by legendary marathon swimmer Lynne Cox.

"I thought 'I want to do that one day,' " she says. "This for me is like the Olympics."

Cox, now 51, said the swim requires not only great physical stamina, but also enormous mental strength. Swimmers must calculate their pace, keep track of the support boat and look out for debris.

"I was so hungry," said Cox, who lives in Southern California. "I was practically dreaming of food. All I wanted was a hamburger."

Delia says she spends a lot of time in water "singing in my head."

"People have said to me 'Swimming is boring, why do you bother?' There are times when I get frustrated swimming if I'm going slow or if I'm sore. But then there are days when the water is flat and you can see the whole bay and it is all so pretty."

-- For a video of Delia Salomon's frigid morning swims at Aquatic Park, go to sfgate.com.